Psyae and the Portal

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Ganking what is.

Ganking what is.

I've been asked this question many times (in proper English), but since someone actually used the above phrase as a search parameter (really!), ultimately discovering my blog, I'll indulge and try to answer it, and perhaps embellish a bit.

First of all, perhaps a bit of history.

In traditional role playing games, it was rare that players ever actually killed each other. The goal was to work together in nearly every situation to accomplish the task the dungeon/game master set forth. Killing your cleric was probably not a good idea, even if you really didn't like the cleric.

On the other hand, there evolved games that were pure player versus player competition, such as Warhammer. The entire game was designed like a giant Stratego or Chess board. There was very little content other than pure war.

Eventually, these concepts merged, albeit clumsily. One of the first graphic MMOGs was Ultima Online. It took place in a fantasy world with plenty of individual and group questing to satisfy the classic DnDers. However, it added a component that distracted and discouraged many players. It was the ability for players to kill other players. UO limited a player's ability to kill within the borders of a city (supernaturally speedy guards destroyed anyone trying to kill another player within the borders), but left the huge expanse of land outside the cities to the brigands. Since most people when UO came out were playing on various low-speed dial-up connections, the latency issue added to the mess when groups of players combined forces with the sole purpose of killing everyone not in their group.

UO and the players tagged these types, and anyone else who killed another player, as "player killers" (PK, PKs, PKers, and other variations, for short).

When a player ventured out of town, as was essential to get anything done, and gets killed by such players, that player had been "PKd." I know many players who abandoned UO entirely because of the rampant PKing.

One could argue all day whether PKing was "right" or "wrong," but at that time, most UO players would likely say that, at minimum, the PKing there was unbalanced and it detracted from the joy of gameplay. Especially when dying had dire consequences: loss of experience, loss of items, loss of questing/gathering time, etc.

Regardless of the ethical implications of player killing, it was widely held that the term "PK" brought negative connotations. Not surprisingly, some players were even proud to wear the PK tag. It was a sign that they were aggressive and were always up to a challenge (as long as they had a distinct advantage).

Thus, PKers were often of higher levels, or sufficiently protected within PK groups before heading out on killing sprees. However, when an individual player of an even or lower level tried to kill another player, the PK term wasn't as often applied. Perhaps "idiot" was more commonly used. So, it seemed that from an early point, there was a fundamental PK quality of "having a distinct advantage."

Here is how Wikipedia currently defines Player Killing:

Player killing, or PKing, is nonconsensual and usually random. An aggressor attacks an opponent without agreement to any set of rules of engagement or combat. This can include raiding spawns, camping towns, and any other action which constitutes griefing another party. It also can be applied to group versus group, or GvG, combat where one group has an advantage usually due to larger in number. In Ultima Online, before the release of the Renaissance expansion which added a Trammel facet where PvP was not allowed, a rift formed of those who enjoyed PKing and the Anti-PKs, who do not and protected Trammies.

Now we've entered the age of "ganking." According to Wikipedia, ganking is ...

used in relation to Player vs. Player games where a group of 2 or more people gang up and kill another player, especially if they have an unfair advantage over the person being killed, and is an abbreviation for Gang Kill. Popularised by the MMORPG World of Warcraft, it is now often used in any situation where the person being killed is at a significant disadvantage to the person killing, as in "That horde just ganked me!".

Like many terms, "ganking" has become universally overused, and has lost much of the fundamental definition. If, in fact, it is short for "gang kill," it literally does not apply to those times players are killed by individuals, regardless of the level difference. The concept, however, is the same. When a level 40 player kills a level 15 player, it's equivalent to a "gang" of level 15 players killing that lone level 15.

Some players have narrowed the definition by requiring that it apply only to certain situations. For instance, if the situation is apparently even (like two level 20s meeting on even ground with no assistance, and no distractions), despite the fact that one player will win, it is not a "gank." However, when a player waits till a target player has lowered health while fighting computer AI mobs, and then kills, many will call that a "gank," even if the ganker killed multiple targets.

Regardless of its "proper" usage, "ganking" is always used as a derogatory term, even if proudly used by one's self. For instance, I've heard players attest to a ganking thus: "Ah, man, I just ganked a whole party of grey horde!" Meaning that the player, being at least ten levels higher than the horde party, attacked and killed the horde party, most likely when the party was otherwise occupied fighting mobs. Although bragging, the player likely understands that what was done was generally thought of as negative, at least by the targeted players.

However, what players in WoW have been bred to understand is that regardless of what the opposing faction does, it must be wrong because they're on the other side of the wall. Whereas anything one does against the opposing faction must be justified, merely because of the existence of the opposing faction. This dynamic has quietly revolutionized MMOG gaming and offered up a new definition without a suitable term. The definition is: acceptable ganking from the perspective of one's own faction, but unacceptable from the opposing faction.

Of course, there are those who would disagree that "ganking" an opposing faction member is ever justified. There are guilds that enforce no ganking rules, and rules that prohibit killing any opposing faction member below a certain relative level. How, then, can we define the phenomenon whereby in general, a faction (not merely a "PKing" guild) feels justified performing the equivalent action as defined by "ganking" merely because it is performing it against an opposing faction, and, at the same time, feels that it violates some fundamental or ethical principle for the opposing faction to return the favor in kind?

I challenge anyone to re-define this phenomenon more accurately, if necessary, and to coin a new term for it.

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ESA Suit

Dmitri Williams on Terra Nova was an expert witness on the ESA v. Blagojevich case. I'll let you read all about it there, but it's quite interesting. I commented with a question: Was Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich planning on appealing the ruling? I guess I was being lazy because this is something I have the capacity to research myself. News agencies reported, after the initial ruling, that the Governor did plan on appealing. However, I don't take the media all that seriously. So, I did my own bit of research, and discovered that, indeed, the Governor has already filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. I located the docket and posted the summary on Terra Nova, but I felt the full docket should be shown. Yes, it's publicly available information. However, I did have to pay for the service that allowed me to search for and save the information. I plan on checking the status of the case every few weeks and updating this post accordingly. Enjoy! (Thanks, Dmitri!)

****************************************

US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
Case Summary
Court of Appeals Docket #: 06-1012 Filed: 1/3/06
Nsuit: 3950 Constitutnlty. St Stat-Fed Que
Entertainment Softwa, et al v. Blagojevich, Rod
Appeal from: United States District Court

Lower court information:
District: 0752-1 : 05 C 4265
Ordering Judge: Matthew F. Kennelly, Judge

1/3/06 Private civil case docketed. [06-1012] [1939591-1]
Transcript information sheet due 1/13/06. Appellant's brief
due 2/13/06 for Rod R. Blagojevich. (hudk) [06-1012]

1/3/06 Filed Appellant Rod R. Blagojevich docketing statement.
[06-1012] [1939595-1] (hudk) [06-1012]

1/3/06 [06-1012] ROA from No. Dist. of Il., E. Div. due 1/24/06.
(hudk) [06-1012]

1/11/06 ORDER: The court orders these appeals CONSOLIDATED for
purposes of briefing and disposition: [1940452-1] DW
[06-1012, 06-1029] Appellant's brief due 2/13/06 for Rod R.
Blagojevich in 06-1012, for Lisa Madigan in 06-1029
Appellee's brief due 3/15/06 for IL Retail Merchants in
06-1012, for Video Software Deale in 06-1012, for
Entertainment Softwa in 06-1012, for IL Retail Merchants in
06-1029, for Video Software Deale in 06-1029, for
Entertainment Softwa in 06-1029. Appellant's reply brief
due 3/29/06 for Rod R. Blagojevich in 06-1012, for Lisa
Madigan in 06-1029. (See order for further details.) (kell)
[06-1012 06-1029]

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Search Results Responses!

Some new search terms used to find my site, and my responses:

My absolute favorite so far:

-nasty shows that come on 713 tonight

*no joke, this was a real search that somehow led to my site... sigh

-two guilds sharing chat wow

*Two ways I know to do this. You can create your own chat channel, and even password it. You can also create an entirely new chat window just for that duel chat (to keep it separate from your normal chat). In the alternative, you can use a voice chat program like Ventrilo or Teamspeak. However, be wary that most of those services limit the total number of users at any one time.

-party mod damage readout spell

*Not sure what the "spell" is, but I use CT_Mod, and the additional CT_Raid mod that both work very well at keeping track of raid group member damage. Since you said "readout," I imagine you were looking for more, and there are plenty of damage recording mods out there to choose from.

-why jump when attacking in wow

*Hah, interesting question that my friends and I comment on sometimes. I've seen plenty a mage, rogue, or other class jump around like mad either because they've had too much Jolt soda, or they think it's actually effective at pvp. It certainly is effective against players who use their keyboard keys to rotate, but otherwise, I believe it's just rather annoying. Of course, the alternative is the hunter's Jump Shot.

-tactics paladin vs rogue

*I've had some run-ins with paladins, and the best way to handle them is a combination of kicking and kiting. Paladins are less susceptible to poisons, but I use double crippling anyway. My goal is to reduce the paladin's mana by quickly reducing the paladin's health, and making the paladin burn off all her cooldown shields. Most importantly, once the pally hits a shield, get out of dodge! Literally run the other way and keep out of the aoe radius until the shield wears off. It's likely you'll be able to re-stealth, and open upon the pally as if you just started the fight but with the pally at half mana or less. Especially if you've taken the time to bandage while the pally is shielded and self-healing. For especially good paladins, you'll likely have to pop a few cooldowns, yourself, but don't pop a vanish within aoe radius, or you'll have wasted it. Paladins can hit aoe the second they hear the vanish sound.
*(oops, just realized this searcher was probably looking for a strategy for paladins to beat rogues! Response: hah! It'll never happen! Just kidding. I suggest finding a paladin-specific blog (there's one on my links list) or forum. And, maybe begging a rogue to let you kill her?)

-w5g fl + @g mo + ds au + to fl + ag pic + kup
(editing it so that people won't come to my site looking for the actual mod)

*This is obviously an exploit, and, unfortunately, it's been a common search that results in hits to my site. I do not at all support or pursue exploits of any kind, and I quickly report anyone I suspect of using one (with good evidence). Exploits ruin games. Period. They destroy economies and unbalance the fairness of the game world. It's hard enough with damn shamans running around. Why add to the chaos by exploitation?

-king of stormwind

*The bastard who crashed TN this weekend.

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